


Worldbuilding

by AdaptationDecay



Category: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-13
Updated: 2013-09-13
Packaged: 2017-12-26 11:45:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/965555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AdaptationDecay/pseuds/AdaptationDecay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Frank and Helen are going to build an entire world from scratch, almost. I'm longing to see how they do it, but I never shall."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Worldbuilding

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Gray_Cardinal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gray_Cardinal/gifts).



The previous summer had been extremely cold and wet. If it hadn't, perhaps Polly and Digory would never have begun their exploration of the house in London. An exploration which led them into Uncle Andrew's study, then right out of our own world. Last summer had been exciting, perhaps even too exciting. This summer, by contrast, was fine and dry and extremely boring. 

Digory had moved away from London to a house in the countryside. It had a millpond for swimming, a river full of trout for fishing and endless woodland full of birds and animals. If Polly had visited a year ago, she would have thought Digory's new house was heaven on earth, but after all she'd seen the summer before it was now somehow less impressive.

The two of them had found a grassy slope beyond the rose garden. Since it was far enough away from the house that they wouldn't be overheard, they were lying in the sun discussing Narnia.

"Are you jealous?" Polly asked.

"Not so much jealous as desperately curious," said Digory earnestly. "That cabby and his wife-"

"Frank and Helen. How can you forget their names when you were at their coronation?"

"All right, Frank and Helen, then. Don't go on. I only meant that they're going to build an entire world from scratch, almost. I'm longing to see how they do it, but I never shall."

Polly turned so she could look Digory in the face.

"You're not going to go to your Aunt Letty's and dig up the rings are you?"

"After He told us not to? No fear."

"Then I don't see what the point is of being curious."

"It doesn't have to have a point. I just am."

They lay on the grass in silence for a few minutes staring up at the clouds, then Polly spoke.

"What would you do?"

"How do you mean?"

"If you could build an entire world from scratch, what would you do?"

Digory sucked in air between his teeth, like a builder arriving at an estimate.

"We-ell... For a start, I'd fix things so a chap could enjoy his summer hols properly and not have to work his way through amo amas amat and pages upon pages of other Latin verbs. That's the first thing I'd put right if I were in charge of everything."

Polly laughed.

"Isn't that thinking rather small? Besides, how could there be any Latin to learn in Narnia when there weren't any Romans? Don't you remember when we were on Fledge? We were saying how nice it was to have a country without any history, because it meant you couldn't have any history lessons."

Digory began ticking off subjects on his fingers.

"No history. No Latin. You couldn't study literature, because there isn't any yet. You couldn't learn geography from books and globes, you'd have to go exploring. Gosh, schools in Narnia must be ever so much more pleasant over there than here."

"Very," agreed Polly, "But that's all things you _don't_ want. What would you keep? There must be something here that you'd still want in Narnia."

"Christmas," said Digory after a moment's thought.

Polly considered this.

"Wouldn't that be terribly queer? Bethlehem's in our world after all."

"Well, perhaps, but at any rate you could still have goose and presents and figgy pudding and decorate a tree. You could have Father Christmas, even."

"I can't quite picture Father Christmas in Narnia."

"You couldn't have pictured a lamp-post at first either, but one jolly well grew just the same."

"You think Father Christmas will grow just because people want him?"

"I think that if we managed to grow a toffee tree, Father Christmas would be easy as pie, assuming that's what He wanted. Anyway, you haven't said what you'd keep yet."

"Music," said Polly instantly. "Do you know how you sometimes forget how a song goes and it sends you quite dotty until somebody hums it to you or you can pick it out on a piano?"

"Yes. Well, sort of... I don't play, but I know what you mean."

"Well it would be simply awful to have that happen in Narnia, with no pianos and nobody to hum for you. You'd be driven to distraction."

"They've got each other," said Digory, comfortingly. "Sometimes all you need is one other person who understands."

There was an awkward sort of pause, while neither of them looked at the other.

"Just the same," said Polly, eventually. "The first thing I'd do would be to get all the songs I could think of and write them down and teach them to all the animals and fauns and everyone."

"All right, that's fair, but what would you get rid of?"

Polly shrugged.

"War, I suppose."

Digory made a snorting noise.

"How exactly like a girl."

"Don't be beastly."

"Well show some sense then. How are they supposed to defend themselves? They have enemies - well, an enemy anyway..."

"And whose fault is that?" Polly asked him in a rather sharp voice.

"All right, it's my fault, I admit it, but that doesn't change the facts. Anyway, He as good as said it himself, 'first in the charge and last in the retreat.' That means battles and feats of daring glory." Digory sighed and pulled himself up onto his elbows, getting a good deal of grime into the sleeves of his Norfolk jacket in the process. "They're going to have the most incredible adventures and we're stuck here where nothing ever happens. So perhaps I am jealous, a bit."

"You couldn't have stayed, anyway. Jolly silly sort of king you'd have been with no queen."

There was a much more awkward pause.

"Anyway, I suppose it doesn't matter now," said Digory. "He chose the other two."

"Yes," said Polly in a quiet voice. "You don't really wish we'd stayed anyway, do you? Not really."

Digory looked away. Far away beyond the lawn, he could see his mother walking in the rose garden, healthy and happy.

"No," said Digory. "Not really."

**Author's Note:**

> With thanks to Morbane.


End file.
